Military History Photo Friday: Moroccan Uniform from World War One

As I mentioned in a previous post, I've been researching the Moroccan Colonial troops who fought in the French Army during World War One. The British regiment I'm writing about meets up with one of these regiments at the Battle of the Aisne in 1914.

I'm having trouble finding information about their uniforms. It seems the more I look, the more variants I find. The image above shows reenactors of the 1st Regiment of Moroccan Tirailleurs (Skirmishers). Compare it with the previous uniform I posted and you'll see they're very different. I've also seen images where the troops are wearing a simple tan uniform with matching fez.

So I'm stuck not knowing how to describe my Moroccans. Memoirs from the British who fought at the Aisne don't mention the uniform. What's a historical novelist to do??? More research!!!

An interesting aside: the French government built the Grand Mosque of Paris as a thank you to the 100,000 Muslim troops who died fighting for France in WWI. Almost a century later, it's still one of the largest mosques in Paris.

Image courtesy Claude Truong-Ngoc.